Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's pay is far lower than most of his counterparts, a study conducted by international management consultancy firm Hay Group among 13 European Union Prime Ministers, shows.

With an annual pay packet of €39,380, Dr Gonzi receives E280 a year more than the lowest paid Prime Minister in the group, Slovakia's Mikulas Dzurinda, who earns €39,100 a year.

According to the study, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the best paid head of government in the EU, and with an annual salary of €268,500 earns almost seven times what Dr Gonzi gets. German Chancellor Angela Merkel earns €261,500 a year.

The Hay Group study said that, superficially, there is broad consistency in the annual total cash incomes of the surveyed prime ministers. Generally speaking, the prime ministers in the bigger countries, particularly the UK, Germany and France, tend to be paid higher than those in the smaller countries, except for Ireland, where Bertie Ahern's pay level is above average. Pay levels in the Eastern European countries are substantially below average.

Maltese ministers also have the lowest salary among the 14 countries surveyed, except for Slovakia. This year's ministerial salary in Malta amounts to €34,654. On the other hand, German ministers have the best financial package with an annual salary of €218,200.

Although prime ministers' salaries are still considered to be on the high side when taking into account the average salaries in their respective countries, they are still not the best paid employees. In fact, the study shows that when prime ministerial jobs are evaluated and their pay is compared to that of equivalent private sector posts in their own markets, a more complex picture emerges.

Most prime ministers are paid between 10 and 20 per cent of the prevailing rate for comparable sized jobs in their countries. In Poland and Portugal, in fact, the figure is as low as 5 -10 per cent.

This is also the case in Malta where many chief executives and top officials of both private and public companies are paid much more than the Prime Minister.